Wednesday, 9 January 2013

As famous a website and social network as Reddit is, it doesn’t have
official apps on all major platforms. Redditors who Reddit on desktop
mostly use the website but Reditr is an app available
for Mac, Windows, Linux and Chrome that will make you forget the website
altogether. The desktop client lets you manage one or multiple Reddit
accounts and create a Reditr account that syncs your activity across all
its own apps. It maintains a history of links you’ve visited, supports
keyboard shortcuts and provides an easy-to-navigate, TweetDeck-like
column view for all subreddits that you follow. The app is great if you
have both a real and several throwaway accounts or if you’re just a
lurker. Post links can all be previewed within the app (this includes
videos and GIF images) while links in comments open in your browser.
Reditr actively monitors for new comments and up/down votes, sports a
gallery view for subreddits and lets you upload images directly to Imgur
when you submit content.

Interface, Multiple Accounts & Sync Setup

Setting up Reditr involves only two steps and they can both be
skipped. You can create a Reditr account, which is an account for the
app alone and has nothing to do with Reddit. It allows you to sync your
history and activity across the platforms. Next, you can add your Reddit
account, which isn’t necessary if you’re just going to lurk. To add an
account, click the red ‘Accounts’ button in the top-right corner. The
same button lets you sign out of or remove your Reddit accounts from the
app one by one.
Reditr has columns dedicated to each of the top subreddits and one dedicated to the front page.
Clicking the history button in the top bar will give you a scrollable
list of all the links you’ve visited. Other options here let you open
the app’s settings, return to whichever link you viewed last, visit a
particular Redditor’s profile, add a subreddit and view any subreddit as
a gallery.
When you’re signed in, it gets better. The top bar allows you to view
messages in your inbox, submit new content of your own and view your
favorited/saved items. It also adds a “Quick View” option that is
basically a compact and slightly more convenient way to browse through a
single subreddit.
The Quick View sports a “Random” button, which can prove to be particularly useful for discovering new subreddits.

Navigation

You can move through the columns using the page navigation at the
bottom or the arrow on the left/right of the columns. Along the top, you
will see a bar linking to popular subreddits, same as on Reddit’s web
interface. The subreddits all open in their own columns that scroll
independently. Each column has its own settings that appear when you
move your mouse over the column’s name. The settings let you change the
position of the column, its title, and width. You can also refresh it,
remove it, or choose to view it in gallery mode.

Previewing & Opening Reddits & Links

When you hover your cursor over a link, the
app aromatically displays a preview of it in a pop-up. This might slow
down browsing for you, which is why the app provides you with the option
turn it off from its settings.

When you click on a link, regardless of the type of
content (image, GIF, or video) it points to, it will open in the app’s
own browser. The column of the subreddit that contained the clicked link
is shifted to the extreme left, the other columns disappear and the
remaining space is occupied by the content being viewed, along with its
comments, upvotes and downvotes.

If you’ve added your Reddit account to the app, you can
reply to comments and add your own. The comment threads are collapsible
like in the web interface. Buttons along the bottom of the post allow
you to save the content you’re viewing (not to your drive; it’s more
like bookmarking), report it, view OP’s profile, copy the URL of the
Reddit, open it in your default browser, copy and open the direct link
to the content in the Reddit.

Customization Options

As a desktop app, Reditr is rich in features, and also offers a ton
of customization options. Head over to the settings screen to manage
content, themes, syncing, your signature, the top bar, view your
profile, manage your flairs and subscribed subreddits, and see the
keyboard shortcuts that the app supports.
The General tab is where you can set comments and private messages to
update live. You can also choose how many items it should store in
history, whether or not NSFW links should be displayed (or previewed)
and if new comments should be highlighted.
The Themes tab allows you to customize the background and text color
as well as the font size. Reditr has a dark and a light theme. The
background image can be changed to one of the presets or you can opt to
use one from your system.
If you think the top bar is too cluttered, visit the Top Bar tab and
choose which subreddits should appear there. From here, you can also add
a subreddit to it. The ‘Editor’ mode allows you to make changes to the
bar whereas the ‘List’ option simply displays a list of all subreddits
that appear on it.

Submitting Links & Batch-Uploading Images To Imgur

Submitting new content is pretty much the same as it is on Reddit.
Sharing images is where the client races ahead of its web counterpart.
You can submit multiple images via Imgur by dragging & dropping them
on to the submission dialog box. Make sure you drop the images within
the ‘Link’ field.
Apart from these obvious features, there are some small but subtle
things about Reditr that make you want to use it. Comments don’t load
all at once, which is good if you seldom read an entire thread, but when
you do need to view the entire thread, there is a button that you can
hit to load it all. Also, a lot like the web interface, links you’ve
visited are faded out, something you don’t see quite that often in
social media clients.
Reditr has a Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome app. The Chrome app
doesn’t just link to another website. It runs in your browser, performs
just as well and has just as many features as the desktop variants.Download Reditr